Tufting is a process for making rugs, wall hangings and other items from yarn. Tufting is characteristically carried out by the home craftsman using a hand-operated tufting tool.
One of the most popular tufting tools is shown in common assignee's U.S. Pat. No. 3,714,915. This tufting tool includes an elongated body and a shuttle mounted on the body for reciprocating movement relative to the body. An elongated resilient plunger is attached to the shuttle for movement with the shuttle. A needle is mounted on the body adjacent one end of the body. The needle has a yarn receiving passage and a plunger receiving passage with the plunger receiving passage being adapted to receive at least a portion of the plunger. The needle includes a first portion attached to the body and a penetrating portion projecting from the first portion and terminating in a relatively sharp point remote from the first portion. The yarn receiving passage extends through the first portion and the penetrating portion.
In use of this prior art tufting tool, yarn is threaded through the yarn receiving passage and the needle and plunger are forced through a first location on a backing material. This forces one loop of the yarn through the backing material. The needle is then withdrawn from the backing material leaving the plunger in the backing material. Following this the needle is forced through a second location on the backing material and the shuttle is reciprocated to remove the plunger from the first location to the second location. This process is repeated to form a number of yarn loops on the backing material with one of the loops being initiated each time the needle is inserted into the backing material.
This tufting tool works very well. Although use of this tufting tool can be learned relatively quickly, the inexperienced operator may have some difficulty in getting each of the stitches to be of even length. The stitch length is dependent on the forward travel of the needle between adjacent insertions of the needle of the backing material.
For many applications it is desired to have about five or six even stitches per inch. Those who are inexperienced in the art of tufting tend to stitch unevenly and frequently beginners make too many stitches per inch. This makes the height of the pile uneven and significantly detracts from the appearance of the tufted article. In addition, too many stitches wastes yarn.